Provinces nurture the feel-good factor

Gerry Thornley On RugbyWow. The Heineken European Cup's capacity for helping Irish rugby feel good about itself shows no sign of abating. That was as good a start, as impressive a clean sweep of three wins from three, as Ulster, Leinster and Munster have ever thrown up. That it was completed by Munster at Welford Road rounded it off perfectly.

All feels better with the world when Munster are back in the winning vein in Europe, all the more so when it's on English soil, to be honest, and none better than on the sodden green grass of Welford Road.

Of course, we should never have doubted them.

Even by their extraordinary standards they needed something special to earn another one-score win just as the Fat Lady was clearing her throat.

There was something of a churlish reaction in certain quarters (and not all of them English) about the result going against the run of play, and that Leicester, no less than Gloucester the day before against Leinster, had suffered at the hands of the referee.

In truth, Munster earned pretty much everything they got on Sunday. The sight of one photographer soaked literally to the skin by one of the worst match-day conditions he'd ever worked in can only begin to convey how bad the pitch and the rain really were.

Iain Dowling may or may not have been a fraction in front of the hindmost foot when making that telling tackle on Scott Bemand which led to Donncha O'Callaghan's try, as Pat Howard clearly suggested amid his thinly veiled annoyance with referee Nigel Owens.

The David Wallace try completed the move of the match, while O'Gara landed a drop goal and two of his only three shots at goal - one from his half.

By contrast, all of Leicester's points were down to decisions by Owens. For the first three-pointer against Denis Leamy at the breakdown, he was third man in, and played the ball on his feet before leaving it alone when he lost his footing. It was a desperately harsh call.

As for the three-pointer against Frankie Sheahan for not rolling away, well, not every referee would have given that one, while not even Dick Best could justify the biggest decision of all, the penalty try, when video replays confirm the impression that Munster had got the hit and the wheel on the final put-in.

There seems also to be a degree of churlishness from one or two of the high-profile Irish pundits, even to the extent that two of Leinster's tries could be dismissed, one of which was an 80-metre counter-attack through three pairs of hands. Afterwards, Gloucester must have felt a little like Leinster's lingering detractors, in that they were never really pulverised, or even on the back foot for any real length of time; that they were mugged.

But that's what Leinster do. They're like Lions lurking in the tall grass. They seem to be snoozing and they spring to life. They can strike stealthily, anywhere, anytime, and with little or no warning.

And it is this strike power, this finishing edge, which enables them to win matches they've no apparent right to win, or pilfer a bonus point when not obviously dominant.

For sure, there was an argument that Trevor Hogan brought down the Gloucester maul in the prelude to that breakaway Stephen Keogh try in the game's vital turning point, although an isolated individual can bring the maul down if tackling the ball carrier - it's just that Hogan didn't appear to do that.

One criticism of Leinster would be that if they could respond to the sinbinning of Malcolm O'Kelly (also very harsh) with such intensity for 10 minutes, that really they should be looking to sustain it for longer periods.

What Ronan O'Gara said last week, he and many others have been saying for years. Even so, the English clubs' one win out of six, and that by the champions of two years ago, Wasps, at home to struggling, demoralised Castres, 11th in the French top 14 after three defeats in their previous four games, was surprisingly unconvincing but doesn't make it a bad league or all of them bad sides.

However, most significantly, in light of the week that was, in four match-ups between the Magners Celtic League and the English Premiership, the former won the lot - two away, and two at home. Even France's four wins out of seven featured a double over two of the three Italian teams.

The flip side of this coin, however, is that the Irish provinces' toughest assignments could be Ulster's trek to a free-flowing, prolific Llanelli, Leinster at Edinburgh on Sunday and Munster at Cardiff in round three.

One of the curiosities of the opening weekend was that the half-dozen English Premiership sides started with three Irish outhalves, namely: Jeremy Staunton at Wasps, Barry Everitt at London Irish and Paul Burke at Leicester. This was one more than the three Irish representatives, and what's more, of the two home-grown and home-based number 10s - some blokes by the name of O'Gara and David Humphreys - the latter has retired from Test rugby.

It will be interesting to see who Eddie O'Sullivan picks as his back-up outhalf to O'Gara. Either way, some good players will be omitted from the Irish squad for the autumn series when it is announced this week.

But the real dilemma for O'Sullivan will be his starting XV and replacements' bench come the first Test against South Africa.

One weekend doesn't make an autumn, and who knows, much could change as early as next week. But the provinces have made arguably their best start ever to a European Cup, emulating the opening clean sweeps of 2001-02 and 2004-05, but against a stronger combined calibre of opponent. Or so it would appear.

More of this next weekend would, of course, heighten the pressure on Eddie O'Sullivan (who announces his squad this week) for performances and results, but he must surely prefer such a low injury profile, apparent good form and the sensitively monitored training programme and preparations.

gthornley@irish-times.ie